Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

9 o’clock

I am absolutely aware of the huge challenge that many tenants face at the moment. I meet them in my own constituency of Dublin Central. I meet people who are very concerned about the level of rent they are paying currently. They are worried they will not be able to pay their rent in the future, or that renting has undermined their ability to save for a mortgage. They are worried about whether they will still have accommodation or a place to rent and call home in a few years' time. I experience all of those pressures. I see the anxiety and the worry in the eyes of renters and tenants who come to me concerned about their future.

The long-term answer to how we make progress on these issues, and the way in which we do it, is by building more homes. That is the answer to it. I was struck by a phrase that Deputy Doherty used. It is one I have heard him use before. He talked about me prioritising the interests of landlords over tenants. Deputy Doherty and Sinn Féin want to turn the word "landlord" into a term of abuse. It is a pejorative term for Deputy Doherty. Every time he stands up and uses the word "landlord", it is a form of political attack. The only reason why I and this Government are taking the measures that we are in relation to landlords is to get more rental accommodation built. That is the only reason why. That is not prioritising the interests of one group over another; it is putting in place the plans that will lead to an increase in rental accommodation. By having more homes, houses and apartments available to rent, it will provide a way in which we can get rents down and make them affordable. That is the truth. What we hear, day after day in this Dáil, is Sinn Féin using the phrase "landlord" as a term of political attack. What we and I want to do is to support policies that will lead to more rental accommodation being available.

A perfect example of this is how Sinn Féin voted on the Finance Bill on Committee Stage, in relation to the extension of section 97A, which is all about providing a form of tax relief to landlords to make rental accommodation available to those who need or want to rent homes. Sinn Féin voted against that. It is a measure that, in the last two years for which information is available, brought 3,200 more properties back into rental supply. Sinn Féin voted against that. What does Deputy Doherty say to the tenants who are living in those properties, which are now available for rent through a tax measure, the continuation of which Sinn Féin opposed while at the same time saying it was standing up for the rights of tenants? The reason why we have measures in place that look to try to increase the availability of rental accommodation is so we can bring rents down and make more rental accommodation available so that rents will fall and that rental accommodation will become more affordable.

What Sinn Féin is doing is saying that it wants to fix the problem of high prices and rents by ultimately putting in place a lower level of supply. That is what its policies will do. It will lead to lower levels of rental accommodation available and a lower supply of new homes and apartments that are available to rent. That is what will happen. Looking at the policies of the Government, they support rental accommodation and support tenants through all of the measures that we have in place, including HAP and other payments that are there to support tenants who need additional support to pay the rent. Without that support, they would face even more difficulties regarding their future. In addition to all of that, what we are doing as a Government is directly building homes. That is what we are doing for next year. There will be 9,000 directly built social homes in our country to help bring forward the overall housing mix that we need to make progress on the rental challenges that we have and all of the other challenges that we have in relation to the availability of homes in our country. The Government will also bring forward and deliver 2,000 new cost rental homes.

Our answer to how we can bring down the price of rent and make rents more affordable to tenants, who I know are currently facing such challenges, is to build more homes to increase rental accommodation. Rent caps and the measures that Sinn Féin is bringing forward will lead to less supply. Less supply will mean that the challenges we face at the moment will only grow more intense, will only grow more difficult and are a recipe for the kind of affordability issues that we acknowledge are there for many, but that we are trying to overcome, to beat and to reduce over time. The policies that Sinn Féin is putting forward are a recipe for them getting worse. That is why I do not support the Report Stage amendment that has been brought forward by Sinn Féin and why I certainly do not believe that the policies that it is bringing forward will make any difference to those who need help and those who need to see their rents fall.

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